Synopsis

A young couple leaves a movie theater after watching a classic horror film, but their walk home turns frightening when Michael Jackson transforms into a werewolf-like creature. The action then shifts into a dark urban setting, where Jackson leads a corps of zombies in one of pop music's most famous dance sequences. The apparent nightmare ends with the couple escaping to safety, only for Jackson's eerie return and Vincent Price's sinister narration to leave the story on an unsettling final note.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released on December 2, 1983, the nearly 14-minute film was presented as a short movie rather than a conventional performance clip. Its cinematic approach helped establish the music video as a major form of popular entertainment.

• The project was inspired in part by the horror film "An American Werewolf in London." Rick Baker, who created the makeup effects for that movie, also worked on Jackson's transformation.

• The production was shot on 35mm film with a budget commonly reported at around $500,000, an extraordinary amount for a music video at the time.

• Jackson's record company was reluctant to finance the production, so the team helped fund it through television deals for the behind-the-scenes documentary "Making Michael Jackson's Thriller."

• The zombie sequence was choreographed by Michael Peters and Jackson. Its tightly synchronized movements became a cultural phenomenon and have been recreated by dancers and fans around the world.

• Horror actor Vincent Price supplied the spoken-word narration, including the chilling laugh that closes the musical section.

• The video premiered at the Crest Theatre in Los Angeles on November 14, 1983, before its television debut.

• In 2009, "Thriller" became the first music video selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.